With a saving of over $90, the Ryzen 5 9600X processor is now at its lowest-ever price, so now might be the perfect time to build that mid-range gaming PC

AMD Ryzen 5 9600X | 6 cores | 12 threads | 5.4 GHz boost | 32 MB L3 cache | 65 W TDP | AM5 Socket | $279 $185 at Amazon (save $94)
The Ryzen 5 9600X is a great mid-range CPU for gaming. It might not have all the multicore grunt of some higher-end chips, but it holds its own against other midrange options for gaming, should offer some longevity in the form of the AM5 platform, and is a steal at this new low price.

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I'd bet there are a fair few PC gamers who have been waiting for the dust to settle on the latest generation of Nvidia and AMD graphics cards before purchasing a shiny new rig. Which means there are probably a fair few of you patiently waiting for the right time to pick up various components.

If so, I'd say now might be the time to pull the trigger if you're looking for a midrange CPU because the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X is cheaper than we've seen it before at just $185 at Amazon. That makes it $94 cheaper than MSRP and $45 cheaper than it was when we highlighted it a couple of weeks ago. Admittedly, that was when it included some RAM and a game, but if you're just looking for the CPU, this is, of course, a better deal.

The Ryzen 5 9600X is a 6-core, 12-thread chip with a boost clock of 5.4 GHz. You might notice that those are essentially the same base specs that we find in the previous-gen Ryzen 5 7600X. But it's not all about cores and boost clocks.

The newer chip features an entirely different architecture with increased instructions per clock (IPC), is produced on a newer TSMC node, and has a lower TDP—which can be boosted back up to 105 W now, if you prefer, to the benefit of a little multithreaded performance.

And this multithreaded performance, to be clear, is the one spot where the Ryzen 5 9600X doesn't shine so brightly. It's not awful, but if you're looking to do heavy video editing, for instance, a chip with a higher core count will probably serve you better.

For gaming, though, the new Ryzen 5 does just fine—great, in fact, for the price. That's because while games are admittedly becoming more and more reliant on multithreaded performance, it's still single-core grunt that drives the majority of the frames, and single-threaded performance is lovely in the Ryzen 5 9600X.

There's no point swapping from a 7000-series chip, of course, nor a 5000-series X3D one, for that matter, but if you're working on older hardware and are looking to build a new gaming PC at a reasonable price, the Ryzen 5 9600X is a fantastic choice at this price. Plus, you get the benefit of moving to a platform that should give you reasonable longevity: Socket AM5 is expected to stick around for a while.

For just $185, you're getting a genuinely capable, current-gen CPU, here. If you're going for an even cheaper build, you could save another $50 by opting for an Intel Core i5 13400F for $132 at Amazon. But you're not getting the same level of performance with that processor—the difference in gaming performance between the two chips certainly isn't insignificant.

And at the other end, if you can find one (and afford it), then a Ryzen 7 9800X3D would be ideal for gaming, or something like a Ryzen 9 9950X ($526 at Amazon) if you're planning on regularly placing the chip under some heavy productivity workloads. But for a midrange gaming chip, the Ryzen 5 9600X is great, and it's hard to argue with a new lowest-ever price that's almost $100 knocked off from MSRP. Definitely worth a look for those looking to build a new rig.